Position in chronology
SAA 04 254. Fragment of a Query (AGS 161) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity] for the performance [of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (r 2) [Disregard that he who touches the forehead of the sh]eep [is dressed] in his ordinary soiled [garments]. (r 3) [Disregard that I, the haruspex your servant, am dressed in] my ordinary soiled garments, or [jum]bled [the oracle query in my mouth].Let [them be taken out and put aside]! (Rest destroyed)
Source: Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P399305/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti]-⸢ka⸣ šá a-na MÁŠ [MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá TAG-it SAG.KI UDU].⸢NÍTA⸣ TÚG gi-né-šú ar-šá-⸢a⸣-[ti lab-šú] / [e-zib šá a-na-ku DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL ARAD-ka] TÚG gi-né-ia ár-⸢šat⸣ [lab-šá-ku] / [ú—lu ta-mit i-na KA-ia up-tar]-ri-du lu-ú [ZI-MEŠ lu-ú BAR-MEŠ]
Scholarly note
Extispicy query addressed to Šamaš, the sungod and patron of divination, edited by Ivan Starr (SAA 4, 1990). The king asks the deity to render a yes/no verdict on a political or military question. ORACC text P399305.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P399305). source
Translation excerpted from Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P399305/.
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